Reviews

Olympiacos (a) - Arsenal were sensational, clinical and utterly professional

I don't have the time to jot down many words today but how could I go about my day without writing a few lines about the mighty Gunners after last night.

We were sensational, clinical and utterly professional in the Karaiskakis Stadium. After losing Coquelin, Cazorla and Alexis before a pretty average performance against Sunderland, it was safe to say that I was not exactly brimming with confidence before the game although seeing Ramsey, Giroud, Campbell and Özil in the same line up gave me a little bit of hope.

You can often tell how an Arsenal performance will unfold from the first 10 minutes of a game and that was what I looked at closely. This time that theory can be thrown well and truly out of the window. We struggled to get into the game from the off and had to focus on keeping Olympiacos at bay, but for all the Greeks possession and boisterous home support, they failed to test Petr Cech's goal.

The first goal was always going to be massively important, and when you have Mesut Özil in the side you can always carve open a chance from nothing. His pass behind the full back was sumptuous and Ramsey's left footed cross inch perfect for Giroud at the near post. Mesut has taken much of the credit for that goal but you cannot underestimate the difficulty in finding your only target in the box with your weaker foot. Two assists for Giroud from Ramsey in the last two games.

But those two bits of play were minor compared to what Joel Campbell produced just after half time. Taking Özil's long pass on his thigh, turning his man, dragging the ball back past another before producing Dennis Bergkamp levels of an angled pass into the stride of Giroud.

No joke, I have watched that piece of play well over 20 times already and I am far from bored of it. I haven't seen a better Arsenal assist so far this season and we've already had hundreds of Özil assists to flick through.

Joel Campbell was exceptional last night, without question his best game for Arsenal.

I have been in the lab this morning writing out a formula that needs to be tested before we know whether or not a player is good enough at the top level.

Basically we just do not know what X is until the rest of the criteria has been reached. Campbell looks like a player growing in confidence, we saw that when he rolled his foot over the ball a few times before picking out Walcott at the far post.

I thought we looked relatively secure at 2-0 which surprised me as I expected the home team to turn up the heat but we dealt with pretty much everything.

The game was put to bed with yet another Özil creation. His turn and pass through to Giroud started the move that lead to the penalty. Monreal's shot come cross blocked by the hand of a defencer. Those are often not given so we'll take that all day long.

Giroud with two goals under his belt already made no mistake from the spot, securing his first Arsenal hat trick. What a time to get it too.

We had further chances as the game came to a close but did not take them.

Campbell, Monreal, Giroud, Özil and Koscielny were the stand out players on the night but all the players and coaching staff should take a bow (son)

More than anything I hope this result and performance allows this team to kick on and show greater belief in themselves for our Premier League campaign.